The sites I've been working on in Rails are slowly going live. Not sure whether this means I'm going to have more free hours after next month, but I'm always on the lookout for new opportunities. Meanwhile, a few more links.

• Free Rails PDF: Only 3 Days To Go! - The PDF of Patrick Lenz's intro Rails book is worth grabbing if you haven't already.


• How to turn your rails site into an OAuth Provider - This looks like an area in flux but it's coming along.


• RSS feed being reset every time I edit something - Well, someone else is having the same issue with Mephisto's RSS that I am. Not that that helps solve the problem.

I actually spent much of the weekend writing Rails code (along with a bit of LSL code). It feels good to be back in the saddle again.

• Running gem_server on Leopard - Making up for Apple's oversight when you want local documentation.


• ANN: Spraypaint - yet another tagging library for rails - In case the other tagging plugins don't quite float your boat.

It's the Thanksgiving holiday here. With luck that will mean fewer interruptions than usual, and I can actually get some work done.

• RubyWorks Production Stack on Amazon EC2 - Capistrano recipes for getting up and running quickly on your shiny new EC2 instance.


• AddonUpdateSecurity - The first major annoyance I've hit in Firefox 3. With their newly-tightened security, you cannot install an extension that isn't hosted securely (like, say, BugMeNot). I understand the arguments for this, but just like version compatibility issues, I think you ought to be able to set a key to shoot yourself in the foot if you want.

The big open source event yesterday was the release of Firefox 3 beta 1. I'm soaking in it right now, and so far it's working stably for me (no opinion yet on whether it's any improvement on the RAM front), so let's start with a few related links.

• Firefox 3 Beta 1 Release Notes - With a link to the download page.


• How to have Firefox 3 and Firefox 2 running at the same time - Useful if you don't want to gamble too much. If you're on a Mac remember to put the package in a folder somewhere so you don't overwrite your Firefox 2 install.


• Extension Versioning, Update and Compatibility - This page at the Mozilla Development Center has the details on the configuration setting (type about:config in the address bar to get there) that you can make to turn off extension version checking entirely. If you turn it off, you can install any add-on you want to Firefox 3, whether it's been updated or not. Don't blame me if you break something.


• Nightly Tester Tools - If you do an upgrade and your add-ons stop working, you can install the Nightly Tester Tools to get a button in the extensions dialog that will re-enable them.


• Assembla - Another online workspace for your development team, with Subversion, Trac, and unlimited team size at their free level.

Oops, comments here were broken yesterday. My fault: I hadn't gotten DNS resolution set up properly on the server hosting this blog, so it was biting its own tail and dying when trying to contact Akismet. Ah, those wacky networks.

• Acts_As_Ferret Tutorial - Not new, but something I need to look into, since I'm involved with one project that may be switching from solr to Ferret for full-text indexing and searching.


• Code Spaces - Project hosting, issue tracking, Subversion hosting, on-the-fly backups. Free for 2 users and 1 project, pay plans as you want to host more there.


• Wuby - Self-contained Ruby web server and lightweight application framework. (via Ruby Inside)

I'm back!

Yes, well, it took somewhat longer to get moved and get a new, decent, Internet connection installed than I had planned. And then there was a long while spent getting the darned router configured correctly; I'm still not 100% happy (I prefer not to have to do port forwarding if I can help it), but I'll live. This site probably isn't visible to everyone yet, due to DNS propagation delays, but at least some of you lucky (?) folks can see it now.

Anyhow, I'm still here, though "here" has changed to Newburgh, Indiana (just east of Evansville). And I'm still making my living off of non-Microsoft computer alternatives, primarily Ruby on Rails development. Now that I have this soapbox again, I'll go back to keeping track of useful links.

• Allow a different local and remote subversion repository path for Capistrano - This one came in handy for me last night, as I had to deploy past a firewall that is now enforcing just such a requirement on me (at least, I haven't yet figured out how to get the internal NAT'ted addresses to see the external port-forwarded address for the Subversion server). Remember to require /lib/tasks/patch_capistrano.rb in your deployment recipe if you use this. Or you could just upgrade to Capistrano 2.0, but I haven't had time to climb that hill yet.


• Sinatra: Classy web-development dressed in a DSL - Yet another quick way to bang together those web applications.

Yep, I'm still here, though you wouldn't know it from my lack of postings. Pre-move preparations (we're headed from Washington state to Indiana on October 6) are taking an increasing amount of scarce time. But, I'm still doing all of my work in non-Microsoft pastures and loving it. I just don't have nearly as much time to chase links as I'd like. This should change in a month or so.

Also, a bit of advance warning: A Fresh Cup will be going offline from October 4 until I'm not sure when, as the server that it's running on will be packed and moving across the country with me. Moving the site to a remote server is one of those "nice to have" tasks that has fallen off the bottom of the list.

• URL Conventions - As used by RESTful URLs in Rails. Beware, these are the Edge conventions - if you're working in 1.2.3, pay attention to the little note at the top about semicolons. (via Less Everything)


• Database Conventions - Roundup of some of the Rails magic. This helped me out when I unwittingly used "type" as a column name. (The simple answer is "don't do that.")


• CodeGear Releases 3rdRail - Another IDE enters the fray. I'd check it out, except that I simply do not trust Borland to continue supporting any product over the long haul; they have too much history of abruptly dropping things when their strategic direction changes. I've been burned too many times to use them as a vendor for anything now.

Mad whirlwind of move preparation is starting to get in the way of regular posting, but here are a few more things I've bookmarked lately...

• Is Free Beer Possible? - Discussion of the state of Rails documentation, to which I really ought to contribute (both the discussion and the documentation) when I get a few free moments.


• Easier Timezone support in Rails - Client-side solution to displaying server timestamps sensibly.


• Firebug 1.1 beta - The next step in everyone's favorite in-browser javascript debugger.

Where did all these browser tabs come from? Rabbits, I say, rabbits...

• Ruby on Rails vs Django - Commercial #7 - Who says Rails developers don't like any other frameworks?


• Railsify - A new repository for Rails plugins. (via Ruby Inside)


• DRAFT: Rails Code Review PDF - Peepcode is branching out from screencasts to minibooks. This one looks like an excellent start.


• ActiveState Announced Open Komodo Project: Open Source, Open Web, and Open Dev Tools - ActiveState is launching an open-source client side web development tool integrated with FireFox and based on their own Komodo IDE.

8 months in to retooling my career, and things are still going well, if a trifle hectic:

• Both of the clients I've been doing Rails work for have extended their initial contracts with additional work, which strikes me as a pretty good vote of confidence.


• I've started building out another Rails application that we'll be using as a springboard for a new business as my better half transitions careers herself.


• The prospect of work in Second Life remains live, though on the back burner as the prospective client is still getting corporate funding in place. I had another promising chat the other day though, and continue to hone my skills (and have fun) on that platform.


• Daily postings at Web Worker Daily are keeping me in practice as a short-order writer, as well as bringing in a bit of side income.


• Life is more chaotic than usual, with our impending move to Evansville, Indiana being set for about a month from now.

It may be Labor Day in the States, but I'm in front of a computer with too many browser tabs open anyhow.

• Aptana Milestone 9 - Plenty of active development going on in this Web IDE.


• Capistrano 2.1 Preview #1 - Capistrano development is just charging along.


• Rails Plugin: Acts_As_Indexed - Boolean-queried full-text indexing with no dependencies on an external indexing engine.


• Integrating the PayPal API with Ruby on Rails - Twelve bucks, but something I'm going to need to do soon, and I'm contemplating buying a copy to short-circuit the learning curve.

Moving is such a huge pain in the arse. Let's wallow in links for a few minutes to avoid thinking about it.

• Webistrano - Web UI for managing Capistrano deployments, including complex scenarios, with tracking and history.


• Why not ASP.Net? - Another Microsoft refugee sums up reasons for not using the ASP.NET platform.


• RM-Install - New Rails stack installer (Mac/Linux at the moment) from FiveRuns and BitRock that looks like it covers just about everything you need to get cooking.


• The Rails Edge: Quotes and Notes - A batch of amusing conference one-liners.


• scplugin - Finder-integrated Subversion for the Mac. Haven't tried it yet.

The complete refactoring of life continues: we're accepting an offer on our house today. Meanwhile, a few more links...

• Seesaw - High-Availability Mongrel Packs - Folks are still working on the best way to set up high-availability, high-traffic Rails sites. I do wish there wasn't quite so much black magic in this. But this looks like a potentially useful tool. (via Ruby Inside)


• Rails vs .NET - Ruby on Rails Commercial #5 and Ruby on Rails vs. PHP - Ruby on Rails Commercial #6 - A couple more bits of satire from the Rails Envy guys.


• Streamlined 0.9 Release Candidate - New version of this fancy replacement for the boring default Rails scaffolding.

I had a wisdom tooth out yesterday, but the show must go on...

• Generating ZIP file archives via Ruby on Rails - This pointed me in the right direction to satisfy another client requirement. Always nice when that happens.


• Luke - Lucene Index Toolbox - Handy to have around if you're working with acts_as_solr, as I am.


• Rake task to (re)index models for acts_as_solr - Also good to have around, especially during the development cycle.


• Go get it - Hobo 0.6, which provides fast web app building tools for Rails, is out.


• Net::SSH 2.0 preview #1 - A complete rewrite for the adventurous.

It's Monday. Must be, all of a sudden my e-mail is full again. If you need distractions, here are a few potential ones:

• Code Spaces - New free project hosting (at least, seems to be free while in beta) with project management, issue tracking, and Subversion source code repository.


• Free Ruler - Found myself needing to count pixels on the Mac screen. This utility had the virtue of the right price.


• A taxonomy of Rails plugins - Hints on how to write one, rather than a zoo. (via Ruby Inside)


• Deploying Rails Applications is Released as a Beta! - A new book hits the virtual shelves.

Fortunately, blazing heat in this office does not prevent me from finding things that I want to bookmark.

• Review: RailsSpace hits the Ruby on Rails learning sweet spot - Another potentially interesting "first Rails" book, to compete with AWDR.


• Prototype 1.6.0 release candidate - I should probably check this out, though amusingly I appear to be mostly too conservative about my HTML to actually use Prototype.

Cleaning out browser tabs on a Monday morning.

• Repsonding to Comments About Rails - Scott Bellware, who happens to be a Microsoft MVP, defends a shift to Rails from ASP.NET. Saves me the bother, and kicks off a lot of interesting discussion in the comments. Emotions run rather high at times, but Scott does a good job of staying level-headed.


• Rails Rumble - Contest coming in September where teams get 48 hours to design, develop, and deploy a Rails app from scratch.


• 5 Tips to Speed Up Your Rails App - Advice from Ben Curtis.

I know, the stuttering RSS feed is incredibly annoying. It annoys me too. But my todo list is a mile long...excuses, excuses...

• PHP Semantics in Rails:Use Blank? - Just a reminder that Rails defines the handy ?blank on everything. Bad enough that I don't have many of the Ruby core methods memorized yet, there's all the Rails extensions to remember too. Oh well, this is why I'm continually reading books and documentation and source. At some point bits and pieces sink in (and next year I'll be embarrassed to read the code I'm writing this year, too).


• OpenProj - Cross-platform, open-source, free replacement for Microsoft Project. I had a little play with this, since I do occasionally like to track things with Gantt charts (yes, I know they're not ideally suited for everything, but I've got an industrial engineering degree, OK?). On the plus side, it does seem to work fine, and opens Microsoft Project files without a problem. On the minus side, it's a Java app, which means that the UI is equally nonstandard and annoying on all platforms.


• Bug in @flash deprecation? - I've been getting annoying warnings about using @flash in one of my Rails projects even though it's nowhere in sight. It looks like the simple answer for now is "don't use a partial named _flash". Fixed in Edge

Ran across a few more things worth passing along:

• VMware Fusion - This one officially released yesterday. Given my history with VMware (I've been using their Windows products since 1.0) one of the reasons I went with a powerful Mac was so that I could run Fusion and virtualize Windows as a backup plan in case I got stuck trying to transition something away from Microsoft. Now, I expect to never actually install this.


• Cyndicate - New commercial 3-pane RSS reader for the Mac that so far is working quite well for me. I would stick with the free Vienna, except Vienna freezes for me fetching the news now that I've got 200+ feeds loaded in it. And before you offer other alternatives, you should know that I detest online readers, and I think 2-pane newsreader UI sucks crap through a soda straw when you're trying to scan and organize a huge number of feeds.


• PdfWriter and RailsPdf - Relatively elegant way to get PDF output from Rails - something I hope frankly to never need to do, but there you are.

Whoops, I'm a bit late with my report after 7 months of transition away from Microsoft and on to freer pastures. Life, as they say, has been getting in the way.

• At this point, I pretty much do not touch the Windows box except to put together the Daily Grind and to keep up my business bookkeeping in QuickBooks. My accountant is pretty well tied to the latter. We're planning a physical move across the country later this year, if all goes well, which will probably provide an opportunity for switching accountants and accounting packages.


• I haven't written a line of code in anything other than Ruby (and more specifically RoR) in the last month. The two active Rails projects I have are moving along fine. I'm getting in good amounts of billable hours at a decent rate, both clients are happy, and I'm on track to complete the work on time and under budget.


• The "on time and under budget" part is a two-edged sword: it's getting to the point where I ought to be scratching for more work again, though I also need to follow up with the existing customers to see whether they want to extend the engagements.


• More and more I know what I'm doing in RoR without having to look it up, though I still am far from true expertise in the environment. I still need to really be pounding out more code every day to get to that point. I've always learned computer languages by immersion with reference materials handy, though, so I'm satisfied with this state of affairs.


• We recently purchased our second island in Second Life, and rentals are starting to throw off some profit at a decent ROI. So while SL doesn't look as likely to turn into a full-time job as it did a couple of months ago, it may yet become a reasonably profitable hobby.